Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-04-01
,,.ss Of the Battle. Field, tho
nee9 rya.mp.Fire, and tho Merry
March.
Z the Battle.

,u,orous DAYS are over. Never more
A ,.av God 80 will it'll shall the direful pest
aartare in our nation rags onu 1o@''
"" And rest.
iii 1;fe's battle presses. Its alarm
~ SOW With the long-rou every manly breast.
bske TO the fight, sood co"r"oes -"ake ana
Na" arm
~Vhen-rest! -
Some Army Jokes.
y, class Of men we're ever, as a rule,
Lm1er to each other in the dangers and dis
N s"os of actual wal than were nj Union
[%ISrteers. Before this series is concluded
hail lind occasion to set forth n or more
the instances in which brave and de-
E,.sI soldiers suffered and dared in behalf
s.hsir comrades. That this spirit of COM
f,1asbip survives now, more than twenty
'ar after the close Of the war, as illus
.,..l in the half million membership of
H. Grand Army of the Republic, is the
Nv, significant proof of the fervor with
ES;sh il existed during the dark and trou-
led days of the war.
W. Will all this is true, it is also true that
IA veterans dearly loved their joke, and
H., their svmpathies were only aroused in
E,holf of their comrades by serious suffer-
ss ' or actual danger. The soldier who
nmnlaiped without cause, OF was inclined
0ha at all babyish in the rude surround
mas Of marches, bivouacs, and battles, was
;t1sly TO be treated with the toughest and
hast m~erciless ridiculc.
ps,haps | can illustrate these truths no
stter than by giving a leaf from the ex-
Esrience of some Of the recruits of the
twenty ninth Maine Volunteers on the
Eed River expedition.
This regiment was among the best and
mo most serviceable in the Union armies.
Iaroely organized out of the Tenth Maine,
h Ind in its ranks at the time of muster
MT manv men who had served the entire
Iauod Of the war, in many campaigns and
,nou widely-separated fields.
In the spring of 1864 q large body Of re-
cruus to it in Louisiana, just before
the army set ou. upon the Red River expe-
ltjop. They came with bright new uni
forms. biz knapsacks, on which "29th Me-"
WAS conspicuously painted, more "neces-
sariss' than three or four army wagons
coull have transported, and with the pleas
inc Consciousness that each man had one
thousand dollars bounty to his credit at
hone.
This army was mainly composed of men
who had enlisted in the fall of 1862; not q
Few Of its regiments dated back to the
spring OF 1861. These were the men who
bad enlisted from patriotic motives, with
very little in the way Of bounty to stimu-
pat them. Having roughed it through
several campaigns, they were not the men
olook with any large favor or great in
diligence upon these green, fresh soldiers,
with their stuffed knapsacks, their new
clothes, and their large figure of bounty.
The second days march of that cam
paisn had not been finished when the sore
experience of these recruits began. Foot
sore and weary, unused to marching, and
tornented with thirst. heat and dust, which
the veterans around them had learned from
long experience to bear with philosophy,
they flung off their knapsacks, which were
instantly appropriated by those who de-
sired them. The next day the queer spec
taele was furnished of q dozen regiments
that never saw the Pine Tree State, sprin-
kled with knapsacks bearing the inscrip-
ton "29ta Me-"
The Chatting which these demoralized
recruits met with on the march was simply
ptlless. 1t was like rubbing salt and pep
per on a raw spot.
Behold one of them, beaten, blown, and
exhausted, fallen out of the column in
weary distress, sitting by the ways de,
holding his siSteen-pound musket, and
1hllking ruefully of Piscataqua, Aroos-
' 90" Passam' quoddy, Chincoteague, and
S1at not. Rude voices from the marching
eolllnn quiet him rs it passes.
say now, you maniac-get up here
ana pump along"
me Government won't pay you for loaf
ing around there"
Iiow Bangor?"
sack:' ~
Where's that thousand dollars and O
ca.a-OW?"
ata brief halt during the march to Alex
% ia,l while the veterans were Topping
mY"n III Their tracks to catch q few mo-
usl's rest, til the sound of the bugle
l0asea .henl up and started them on again
d socn a halt n of these recruits came
h hVas with a shovel on his shoulder. He
a aSI PROBABLY been detailed for some kind
uaa lapof; but the chance for a joke was toe
good to be lost.
> , l say, You Thousand dollars-and-a-
wv. feller!" one of the veterans sang
d d@ You won't need that shovel; you
u u"n >, /, nave to dig Your own grave. Any OF
Us Il DO that for you"
IL was in December, 1862, when the
ln ,ss TAD steam transport, Thames, was
Hat,asau1 aoout IN a RI ing storm of Cape
nm, siss' WI h her engine broken down,
sWao VI y = crew disabled, the great seas
iny d dea,SS aer deck. and everything threaten.
,hss IIeI.l TO our four companies down il
an IT, was at this critical time thai
hard l,l.aunted soldier boy was seen eating
. .I,,ack With great relish.
JOHN WI" :" see what you can be thinking of,
di snon sad a horribly sea-sick and very
that ~ 9 comrade. Don't you know
BE- il ens snip is toing to sink. and we'll al
Won !ne next world in ten minutes?-anc
Az ~. uWea,,ng hard tack!"
pher re a;s Joe," replied the young philoso.
die a fat II mats mats all 50, I might just as vel
|bovsA snip did not founder, and both tn,
Men, 1one survived, to eat many Govern
4''ions, and tell of Johns GOODNESS.
|volnn,a a1ter the three hundred thousan.
reyi,ua eer call of July, 1862, dozens of new
iugtou. poured into Baltimore and Wash
conceiyol Somebody in the War Department
up Tho the very foolish idea of film!
miums = army by the offer of pre-,
order 10 the volunteers to enlist. A,
cry co WHY issued and published in ev.
s!ap,.al permitting and inviting to,
>sAs VOm each repimant n onI;st /,